Obituaries
We wish all our dear ex-libris friends long life and good health! But as we all know, we cannot go on collecting forever... Please send information as to ex-libris collectors and artists who have passed away.
07.01.08 It was a great sadness to learn, a few days ago, that Germaine Meyer-Noirel, the 'Grande Dame' of ex-librists, passed away on Sunday January 6, after a short illness. She was born in Nancy in 1919 and spent most of her life in her native Lorraine, living in a wonderful house in the village of Tomblaine, with her husband Jean-Charles Meyer (†2000), a highly cultured chemist who shared many of her interests. The house was full of books, bookplates, engravings, and a number of other collections which were started by her father. But her home from home was the Municipal Library of Nancy, next to the celebrated Stanislas Square, where she had convinced the director, many years ago, to give a small office to AFCEL to house its collection and archives. It was a box-lined mouse's nest kept in pristine order, with albums, reserves of publications and many reference books, Germaine's desk and barely room for a chair for visitors. Germaine Meyer-Noirel was a librarian by training, and as such had a real interest in ex-libris as library owners' marks over the centuries – though she did not disdain contemporary ex-libris, even having quite a number to her own name commissioned from various artists as well as received as gifts, which she exchanged, and promptly added her acquisitions to the AFCEL collection, having no real wish to collect for herself. She was a scholar of ex-libris, a researcher and certainly the foremost expert on French bookplates for most of her life. For half a century, she worked as a volunteer for the Nancy Library and for AFCEL, publishing an array of important articles on the history of ex-libris and in 1989 a book, L'ex-libris: histoire, art, techniques, published by Picard, Paris, which remains still today the best reference work on French bookplates. She created at her office in the Nancy Library a National Centre for the Documentation of Ex-libris for AFCEL where she weaved an extraordinary web of scholars and collectors of bookplates interacting with them to identify, classify and document items which were mysterious. This quickly led her to embark on her life-work, writing an encyclopaedic repertory of French ex-libris which now contains over 30'000 items collected into close to twenty volumes. These last few years she worked assiduously on her project mostly from her home, using an excellent database which had been specially developed for her. Not wanting things to get out of hand, she asked her computer technician to install an automatic save and backup every day at 5 pm... following which the computer switched off automatically, and she stopped working! Shortly before Christmas, she passed the letter 'z' cards for checking, so her task was almost finished – AFCEL, with the help of Germaine's daughter, Cécile Malinverno, will see to it that the last volume of the repertory is published soon. Germaine Meyer-Noirel had a key role in AFCEL, recreated in 1945. She was a member since its inception and its president from 1983 to 2000, and then its honorary president until her death. She was, with the help of her husband, a key figure in the founding of FISAE (see http://www.fisae.org/historystatutes.html). All collectors and researchers who were in touch with her will remember how helpful and generous she was with her time and her immense reservoir of knowledge. She was a patient and persistent researcher, and at the same time witty and amusing, with a sharp mind and astounding memory. Beyond her major contribution to the history of ex-libris, Germaine Meyer-Noirel leaves behind her five children, 15 grand-children and 19 great-grand-children. On behalf of FISAE and the entire ex-libris community, we convey to them our heartfelt condolences.
4.05.07 Less than a week after posting the last news I have the very sad task of bringing to you more bad news. Our good friend Vladimir Loburev, founder and curator of the Ex-libris Museum in Moscow, died yesterday, May 3rd. All of you who have been to international bookplate meetings, or being in Moscow have found their way to the Ex-libris Museum on Pushechnaya, will have met him and will mourn him. This is another terrible loss for the Russian Ex-libris Association and we send them our most heartfelt condolences. A biographical note is being drafted and will be posted here soon. 30.04.07 Another leading figure of the Russian bookplate world has left us. Born on April 5, 1930, the great wood engraver and artist Anatolii Kalashnikov died in Moscow on 21 April. Click here to read a text about him by FISAE Executive Secretaty W. E. Butler. 17.04.07 There seems to be a succession of bad news... I was just informed that Veniamin Khudolei, Vice-Chairman of the Russian Ex-libris Association and editor of its journal, died on Saturday, April 14, 2007. Many of us remember Veniamin's brilliant organisation of the FISAE Congress in St. Petersburg in 1998 - and all those who knew him will miss his lively intelligence, his sense of humour and his charm. Click here to read a text on Veniamin Khudolei by W. E. Butler, FISAE Executive Secretary, and here to read a tribute to him by a group of major Russian artists who were his friends. 26.02.07 Today, not only the Bookplate Society but the entire ex-libris community is in mourning. Brian North Lee, writer, collector and historian of bookplates (*1936) died of cancer in London on 24 February 2007. Founder of the Bookplate Society in 1972 and its president for a great part of its existence, Brian was the most prolific author on ex-libris in the history of British bookplate collecting, with many of his works (for example Early Printed Book Labels [P.L.A. and Bookplate Society, 1976], British Bookplates [David and Charles, 1979], etc.) being standard reference books not only for British collectors but used worldwide. He stands without doubt alone of his generation as the epitome of the serious collector and erudite researcher on bookplates. Although his interests centred on British ex-libris and Royal bookplates, his interests were wide and he was knowledgeable on subjects as far apart as mediaeval German ex-libris or contemporary Scottish ones (a book on Scottish bookplates which he wrote with Sir Ilay Campbell is still under press). In 1995, he went to Belgrade as a member of the jury of the 'World of Ex-libris' competition, and his comments and observations showed that he also had a good eye for contemporary bookplates - as long as they were real ex-libris, and not small free graphics in disguise. By training, after an attempt at religious life, Brian became an English teacher and taught many years at a school for educationally difficult children. He delighted in language and literature and each letter one received from him was a small masterpiece. It was a tragedy for him that in the 1980s the school was closed and he was made redundant, with a very modest pension - but for bookplate enthusiasts, it was a gift, as Brian from then on spent nearly all his time and energy on ex-libris. He also, by the way, built up a breath-taking collection of mediaeval pilgrims' badges, with many pieces coveted by the British Museum. Brian's house at 32 Barrowgate Road, Chiswick, was for over a quarter of a century the place where bookplate enthusiasts from all parts of the world went for counsel and information - and to whiff an atmosphere of the England of our childhood, with mahogany and oak furniture, fine china and a grandfather clock which never worked - normal, as time stood still. Privileged visitors met the tortoise in the garden, and also Prince Stanley Hanuman, a very Royal plush monkey which went back to Brian's childhood. Talk was nearly always about bookplates - projects of articles and books, queries as to style, owners, artists, motifs - and Brian always seemed to have that snippet of information one had been looking for in vain. His memory was exceptionally good, and he was sometimes disgruntled when people, over a few years, asked him the same question twice. His deep knowledge of ex-libris was not acquired perchance: he had read all the literature on the subject of the 1860-1920 period, including all the volumes of the Ex-libris Journal, many times. I remember asking him a question about an early armorial once, and he pulled out one of the ELJ volumes, flipped the pages and came to a lengthy article on the subject of my query, written in 1906... he pushed the book in front of me , and said "It's all there!" - and I felt sheepish. Of all Brian's publications, the one which best reveals his enquiring spirit and gently caustic wit is Some recollections of a bookplate collector, which was privately published in the late 'eighties. I have just taken it from my bookshelf, and will start re-reading it when I get home tonight. Perhaps it will be a way to cheat his departure for a few days. All his friends, and especially the West Indian ones, who were the closest to him, sorely miss him. Thank you Brian, for all you have given us. Persons who want more information as to Brian North Lee can read an article by John Blatchly here, and can find information as to his funeral on www.bookplatesociety.org
22.12.06
I received this morning the very sad news that our dear friend Costante Costantini, the great Florentine engraver, painter and creator of ex-libris, died on December 1rst. I feel this loss personally and very directly, as earlier this year I went three times to Florence to see him and to prepare the exhibition of his bookplates which were shown in 'Work in Dialogue' at the FISAE Congress last August. He telephoned me in September to express his joy at having seen the catalogue and his pride in being associated with Simon Brett, Evgenji Bortnikov and Vladimir Zuev in the publication. With his loss, it is one of the last great European woodcutters who disappears. His bookplates and his rich legacy of artworks remain, with their wonderful blacks and whites in perfect balance. Behind the images of persons of all walks of life, the humanity and sense of fun of Costantini is always apparent, with rare crispness and gentility. No one was a more constant friend - as his name reminds us. For those who did not read the short biographical note in 'Work in Dialogue', it can be accessed here. The woodcut shown above is one of the many small prints he used to send as PFs and New Year cards. Below his self-portrait is the word 'auguri', which means best wishes. Best wishes to you, Costante Costantini, and may the earth be light on your grave.
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